Gettan used to say to his companions, “When you have a talking mouth, you have no listening ears. When you have listening ears, you have no talking mouth. Think about this carefully.”
Respond To Present Moment
In one sentence Gettan said everything.
Just be with this sentence for a few days. Remind yourself again and again. Are you listening or talking? Just be watchful. Don’t try to correct yourself or interfere in any process.
Both listening and speaking needs your alertness. At the same time you cannot do both things simultaneously. Either you can listen or you can speak.
What we are generally doing is preparing ourselves when we are listening. In that we miss the opportunity to be with others. We are with others with our identity and ego but never with True-Self.
Listening is something if you watch yourself whether you are listening or your are preparing to reply you will know how your ego rules you.
We are serving our ego. Ego is not serving us. Ego is a tool to live our life, our servant but we allow our servant to rule our life. Guide our life. If we drop our laziness and become alert towards ourselves we will find that life is so beautiful and blissful.
Look into your life. When you have taken any initiative to participate in any of your act how much joy you find it? You have a choice to be happy or not? If you become alert and take interest in yourself you will find that the joy which you are getting is not available when you try to follow someone.
When we are listening to someone at the same time be alert that you don’t prepare your answer. If you become alert towards your listening and don’t allow your identity, which is a gift from others, to prepare your answer. You will find that you become capable of responding. Responding to present moment. There will be so much of joy, enthusiasm and aliveness you find in yourself.
This aliveness has different quality of life. In this aliveness you don’t have any desire, expectations, passions, attachments, but the fragrance of love. There is no expectations from anyone but just to share what you have. It have got innocence like a child with maturity. You will be playful. Your seriousness will be dropped. Once your seriousness is dropped your ego has also dropped. In other words ego will start following your consciousness, your True-Self.
Learning from the story Ears Or Mouth: Respond To Present Moment
Experience Learning
Why is living in the moment important?
The present moment is the only moment in your life that you actually have.
Think about this: when you were experiencing anything in your past, you were experiencing it in the Now. Likewise, in the future, any event in your life you will be experiencing also in the Now. You will always be in the Now.
Although there are many different opinions whether our past and future are real or not, our normal way of living is definitely anchored only to this moment. Even if we could travel back to the past and re-experience some event, we would also experience it in the Now. The same stands for some imaginary time-traveling future experience.
But, in order to really answer this question, we must define the expression “living in the present” in the first place. To live in the Now means to live consciously, to fully experience ourselves and our surroundings without redundant thoughts and other distractions.
One could say that deep sleep is also a thoughtless state. That’s true, but it cannot be regarded as the living in the Now, because it is not a conscious state.
One could also say that while we are immersed in unnecessary thinking, we are in the Now too, because we are experiencing those thoughts in the present moment. But that is also not a fully conscious state, as we are identified with those thoughts, so it’s not really being in the Now.
When we are in the Now, we are either in a thoughtless state, abiding in Pure consciousness or Presence, or we are consciously thinking or doing something (but only that which is really needed for that moment). That thinking or doing is not redundant, but fully conscious and purposeful.
Also, if we are lost in our thoughts, we are identified with them. We are not conscious of them. We are lost in imaginary past or future. That unnecessary wandering drains huge amounts of energy out of us. It distracts us from an action (or non-action) appropriate for the situation in which we are at that very moment.
The perfect response to every situation stems only from the state of Presence. That response can be pro-active or non-active, but either way it is the most appropriate response at that moment.
Living in the present gradually liberates us from all unnecessary burden and allows us to live in the most efficient, yet peaceful way.
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